January 22, 2025
NO ARTICLE THIS WEEK
January 15, 2025
NO ARTICLE THIS WEEK
January 08, 2025
BIDEN RANKS AMONG WORST OF THE WORST PRESIDENTS
Just get back into office. That’s the line of demarcation between U.S. presidents who are abject failures and those who are passable but not irredeemable mediocrities. And it is an ironclad fact that one-termers are never deemed by history as “great” or even “above average” presidents. The American electorate demands and expects their president to be serious, competent and somewhat likable – and definitely trustworthy. Think Joe Biden. On second thought, maybe don’t think about Joe Biden. Nobody else did during this recent election. Add him to the one-termers such as Carter, Hoover, Harrison, Buchanan, Pierce, Van Buren, Bush I, Taft and Johnson. Some of them bailed rather than lose, as did Biden, but Biden-Harris would have lost to Trump as resoundingly as Harris-Walz. If you can’t measure-up in the first 4 years, then you don’t deserve a second chance. If an incumbent wins a second term, which is always a referendum on the first term, then he was not irrelevant. Think Obama. Think Clinton. Think W. Bush. Historians can assess policy impact on economic and world affairs. They won’t view Biden kindly. Biden promised to be a unifying, transformational and/or transitional president. His policies were unfocused. His cognitive decline due to age was masked by family, staff, allies and the liberal news media from mid-2021 onward. His obsession was to undo whatever Trump did. There was minimal rational thought given to the consequences of an “Open Border” -- the cost and disposition of 10 million illegal migrants and the processing of 8 million pending asylum court cases – as well as electrical vehicle mandates, oil and natural gas drilling bans, DEI, the Ukraine War, ceasefire demands in Gaza, inflation-fueling spending, politicization of the DOJ and the FBI, the persecution of Trump, a $36 trillion national debt and a $2 trillion budget deficit. Attached is a CHART listing America's worst presidents. Full Article...
January 01, 2025
RABBITT HAS "NO PLANS" TO CHALLENGE STATE REP KELLY IN 2026, MAYBE GARDINER IN 2027
45th Ward Democratic committeeperson Michael Rabbitt is taking what he calls a well-deserved victory lap after proclaiming that the ward’s “Blue Wall” withstood Nov. 5th’s “Trump Wave” on the Northwest Side. Rabbitt, elected committeeperson last March, said that he has “built an organization where there was none” when Alderman Jim Gardiner held the party post (2020-24) and that the 45th Ward “is not at all like” the adjoining 38th and 41st wards which went, respectively, 44 and 51.1 percent for Trump in 2024. The vote was 10,322-12,842 in the 38th and 13,641-12,702 in the 41st. The 45th Ward went 16,178-8,629 for Harris-Walz over Trump-Vance, a 64.2-34.3 percent margin. Of the 29 precincts not one gave a majority to Trump. He won more than 40 percent in the 7th precinct, about 30 percent in 13th precinct, and under 30 percent in the 9th precinct, getting crushed in the South End (Portage Park) but growing his vote slightly per precinct moving north through Jefferson Park, Gladstone Park and to Edgebrook/Wildwood north of Devon, where Rabbitt lives. The area was added from the 41st Ward after the 2021 remap. But it didn’t require mammoth exertion by Rabbitt to carry the ward for Harris. Clinton-Kaine won 16,082-6,587 in 2016, with 67.2 percent. Biden-Harris won 18,727-8,304 in 2020, with 68 percent. So the Democratic/hardcore anti-Trump base vote increased by 96 votes over 2016 and declined by 2,549 over 2020. Attached is a CHART with recent 45th Ward and 15th House District vote stats. Full Article...
December 18, 2024
REPUBLICANS NEARING PERMANENT MAJORITY IN U.S. SENATE
This year was not a year of political realignment. Instead it was a year of political reaffirmation in which ideological and cultural polarization became permanent. What also has arguably become permanent is Republican control of the U.S. Senate for the foreseeable future, likely into the 2030s. Trump’s decisive 312-226 electoral vote (EV) 2024 win does not mean that either half is as yet permanently winning or losing. 2020 was essentially an anti-Trump vote and 2024 an anti-Biden and anti-Woke/Left vote. 2028 will be a referendum on Trump-Vance; if they acquit themselves well, if the economy thrives, if there are no wars and if Vance is president into the 2030s then they will be a permanent realignment based on class rather than culture. 2024 will be the realignment election. That putative “realignment,” if it materializes, will go through the Battleground states of PA/MI/WI/NC/GA/AZ and NV, with 89 EVs. All 7 of those states were won narrowly by Trump. Trump won WI by 29,397 votes, MI by 80,103, NH by 22,956, NV by 46,008; that’s 36 EVs. Trump also won much bigger in PA by 120,266, GA by 115,106, NC by 183,046 and AZ by 187,382. That’s 57 more EVs. Six of the 7 went for Biden-Harris in 2020. IF they go for Vance next time then there is a solidification toward the conservatism manifest in TX, OH and FL. 2026 ELECTION: Of the 33 seats up in 2024 the breakout was 11R/22D; four flipped. Of the 33 seats up in 2026 the breakout is 20R/13D, so an unpopular Trump Administration could prompt a flip. But that won’t happen. Vulnerable Republican seats are in ME (Collins), NC (Tillis) and AK (Sullivan) as are Democrats in GA (Ossoff), VA (Warner), NH (Shaheen) and MI (Peters). GA, NC and MI are Battleground states won by Trump. Retirements are imminent in ID (Risch), KY (McConnell) and IL (Durbin) where the incumbents are octogenarians, and Warner and Shaheen may also bail as they get older. Full Article...
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